


Nine or Nothing

by mangoyoongi



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, Angst, Dark Magic, Demons, Elves, F/F, F/M, Fae Magic, Gen, M/M, Magic, Magical Violence, Mentions of Blood, Minor Character Death, Multi, Other, Pain, Swearing, Violence, alternate versions of reality, bamf changbin, bamf felix, changbin is older than chan and woojin but younger than minho, demon king changbin, elf hyunjin, fae woojin, hand holding, hellhound minho, hellscapes, mentions of gore, shapeshifter jeongin, shapeshifter jisung, shy changbin, vision sequences, witch chan, witch felix, witch seungmin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-06-29 11:25:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15728448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mangoyoongi/pseuds/mangoyoongi
Summary: a tale of one becomes a tale of nine, how quickly our lives intertwinedid you think isolation would keep you safe?did you think that the arms of loneliness would cradle you?what did you think young one when you settled here?for i see the thirst in your eyesbut do tell what does your heart beat for?-felix just wanted to protect his mother that's it, but when he steals from something bigger then himself he'll have to pay for his crimes... or that's what they want you to think





	1. Perfidy

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first fic since my wattpad days... but, since then i have taken one (1) creative writing class so im hoping this is way less cringey and awful. if theres any spelling and/or grammar errors let me know nicely :) also this has mentions of blood and violence so like don't read this if that makes you uncomfortable... also let me know if that summary is like cringey i literally made it up on the fly so idk... more tags and relationships shall be added as i go :)

“Mama, I’m sorry I had to drag you into this.” A gravelly deep voice whispered to an older woman’s comatose form. She looked cluttered under all the wires and tubes. She didn’t look like the woman that raised Felix. She wasn’t the woman he remembered holding the world on her shoulders. She was older than he remembered, her fine lines were now deep wrinkles that framed her face. Her once long dark curls were now limp and grey. Felix cocked his head at her limp body. His long, calloused fingers reached to intertwine with her shorter ashen ones. He thought that if he was farther away from her, his only family in this world, then she would be safe. He placed a kiss on the back of her hand, listening to the crinkling of her papery hospital gown. “I’ll find a way to make this right.” He stood up and left the hospital room, entering in the sterile and too white and bright hallway. He started to make his way towards the parking garage.

“The doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her.” Voice one, Helios, interjected. Helios sounded clear and crisp, his words always coming out like he had practiced them for hours. Felix massaged his temples, preparing for his ‘guides’, whatever that meant, to take over his thoughts.

“ _Of course, they couldn’t, what’s wrong with her isn’t medical_.” Voice two, Osiris, chimed in for no real reason. Osiris was the opposite of Helios in every way, his words were slow and drawn out. His voice often took detours from the actual point of the conversation. Felix knew that her ailments were, _otherworldly_ for lack of a better word.

“Is that all you have? No offer on what he should do? We are his guides, Osiris.”

“ _Guides or not, we still have no clue what the best course of action is ourselves_.”

Felix groaned at the rising pressure in his head, he leaned onto the wall next to the elevators. Sucking in a sharp breath of air he rested his head against the cool wall and pressed the down button.

“Are you okay?” A voice asked, the nurse was right next to him, but he sounded miles away.

“Yeah, just have a headache is all.” The nurse nodded and walked on, towards the pediatric ward.

“ _Explains the elephant scrubs._ ” Osiris joked.

“See what you did, Osiris. You caused this, you and your smart mouth.”

“ _Oh, can it. Not all of us can be the brightest star in the sky_.”

“That’s it, I can’t stand you. You’re insufferable. You never do anything right.”

The elevator doors dinged open and Felix straightened up and walked into the, thankfully, empty elevator, going straight to the back and leaning against the metal wall. He waited for the elevator to go to the last floor before pushing the stop button. He smirked to himself as he pulled the white chalk out of his jacket pocket, drawing a circle on the wall and surrounding it with runes of travel. He slipped the chalk back into its previous place and focused all his energy into opening the portal home.

He heard the classic sound of crackling and smelt sulfur and lavender.

It worked.

He smiled and opens his eyes to see a light blue fire swirling around his circle, giving him a view into his living room. He pushed the stop button again and walked through the portal into his living room. The portal closed behind him with a flick of his wrist. He took off his jacket, hanging it on a hook by the front door and toes off his shoes. He looked out the window and noticed that while it was still day at the hospital it is now nighttime at home.

“Hey Mojo, did you miss me?” A black cat with almost glowing yellow eyes looks lazily over at him from his current position on the overflowing bookshelf. “Of course, you did. Who else would feed you?” The cat, Mojo, just swishes his tail at the questioning and goes back to his nap.

Felix walked into his catastrophe of a kitchen, there were potion supplies everywhere, ingredients spilling out of mason jars and books lying open on every available surface. The grey walls had various stains on them from magic mishaps and all the shelves he put up for the sake of organization were empty and everything they once held were on the floor. Mojo’s doing probably.

“ _Damn cat_.” You could hear the glare in Osiris’s voice.

Felix groaned as his stomach growled, magic took a lot out of you. He opened the fridge, which required a lot of force due to an unknown lime green waxy substance that was gluing the fridge door shut. The fridge much like the rest of the kitchen was a mess, there was leftover pizza that turned a blue color and some spaghetti that had grown fur. He closed the fridge with a huff, there were no perks to the bachelor lifestyle when you’re broke and can’t cook. Mojo seemed to sense Felix’s distress and came into the kitchen. He hopped onto the table and watched as Felix struggled to get through the mess and open up the cabinets next to the fridge.

“I guess ramen noodles will have to do.” He grabbed the last cup from the cabinet and poured in the water before putting it in the microwave. As his noodles were cooking, Felix, set to work on cleaning up his kitchen. He put everything Mojo knocked off of the shelves back magically, with a flick of his wrist. Mojo seemed to take this as a challenge because as soon as Felix turned his back on the shelves to find the cleaning supplies Mojo had jumped back onto the bottom shelf swiping three jars off for more room. Felix turned when he heard them clink on the ground.

“ _I’ve always hated that damn cat._ ” Osiris snapped.

“You hate everything.” Helios snapped back.

“Mojo, we’ve discussed this.” Felix picked his cat up and holds him as he placed the jars back in their spots. Mojo clawed at his black long sleeve. “Mojo, you’re making it very difficult to love you right now.” The cat simply meowed in response, obviously not caring about whether or not his owner loved him. He put Mojo down and watched as he lazily stalked off into the living room, probably to take his thirtieth nap of the day.

“ _This is why we should’ve left him at the shelter._ ”

“Osiris, shut up.” Felix huffs.

“ _That is no way to speak to your guide. I swear each generation gets more and more disrespectful._ ”

“He learned it from you.” Felix could practically hear the eye roll in Helios’s voice.

“Whatever.” The microwave beeped, disturbing the voices in his head. After eating, his phone went off. It was a text from Alicia, his only real friend and fellow witch.

**evil genius:**

meet me at the club on 5th :-)

im getting your mind off of everything

u can hit the books tmr ;-)

**F is for failure:**

which club?

theres like 10 on that street

**evil genius:**

Atlas

the only one we havent tried yet

wear that one shirt you hate but always gets you numbers

**F is for failure:**

dont objectify me :-0

but fine ill wear it

**evil genius:**

;-* <3

you wont regret ;)

**F is for failure:**

</3

i hate you and i regret this already L

Felix went to his room to find the dreaded shirt, it was a black button up that was just shy of being see through, his tattoos were on full display under the mesh-like material. He swapped his sweatpants for black ripped jeans and fixes his honey brown hair in the mirror, his dark roots had started to peak through already. To be fair the roots probably added to the ‘I don’t care’ vibe that Felix just naturally gave off. He walked back out into the living room and put on his black converse and grabbed his leather jacket, keys, and phone. He turned and ruffled the fur in between Mojo’s ears. “I’ll be back before you know it, Mo.” The cat just blinked at him before nuzzling into the hand. “Yeah, yeah, love you too buddy.” Felix walked out the door, and went on his way to make several bad decisions.

He found the club, Atlas, easily enough. He sent a quick text to Alicia to let her know he was here. He leant against one of the club’s walls and waited for her to respond. He instead felt her punch his shoulder. “The leather jacket makes you look a lot tougher than you really are.” Alicia’s bubbly voice said to him as she leant against where she just punched him. She was wearing a black dress that although it looked to be patent leather was probably fake leather, and black boots. Her short pastel pink curls were pulled in a half up half down style and her circle glasses were perched on her nose blocking the face tattoo of a crescent moon that resided her cheek.

“I am plenty rough on my own thanks.” Felix glared at her.

“Oh please, me and you both know you are a huge softy with a nerd heart.”

“Me and my tattoos disagree.”

“You cried during “Toy Story Three,”.” Alicia scoffed.

“They were holding hands in a furnace. That doesn’t count.” Alicia laughed at Felix, and he couldn’t help but smile too.

“Fine, you still have the whole freckled face doe eyed thing going for you. Not to mention your love for comic books and the fact that you work at an animal shelter.” Alicia poked him in the cheek. There was a moment when all the laughter fell from Alicia’s face, she knew she shouldn’t have mentioned that.

“Magic doesn’t pay for Mom’s bills.” Alicia sobers up quickly, her mouth dropping into a frown.

“I’m sorry, Lix. I can’t imagine what all of this feels like.” Alicia places a hand on his bicep squeezing lightly. Felix knew if anyone else would’ve said this, he would’ve scoffed, yelled at them, and maybe even fought them. But this wasn’t anyone else. This was Alicia, his best friend, the first friend he made after he left everything behind. She had seen him at much lower points in his life, she was his life line. So, he kept his hurt feelings to himself. It wasn’t worth bringing up, considering Alicia had such a temper.

“It feels like I’ve been punched in the gut by Jesus Christ himself and he expects me to thank him and because I am so not thankful, he punches me over and over and over again.”

“That sounds… awful.”

“That’s because it is awful, Al.”

“Wanna drink away your problems and then regret everything in the morning?”

“Oh God yes.” And that’s exactly what happens too. They got drunk and once the club closes, they walked to Felix’s apartment for their post clubbing tradition of re-watching their favorite movies while eating whatever deliver food they could swing.

“You should dye your hair greeeeeeeen next, Lix.” Alicia slurred as they entered Felix’s apartment.

“I should not.”

“We could be Cosmo and Wanda then, but like pla- plat…” Alicia trailed off in a fit of giggles after she struggled with the word, platonic. Felix joined in the laughter, collapsing on his couch and flicked on the T.V. “I wanna watch Hocus Pocus.” They ended up falling asleep half way through the movie. Drunkenly figuring out how to work a DVD player was hard work apparently.

Felix woke up with a splitting headache.

“ _God what was in those shots? That’s the last time Alicia is in charge of buying the drinks_.” Osiris groaned out in Felix’s head. “ _Speaking of the devil, where is she?_ ”

He looked around for Alicia, and found himself not in his living room. He twisted his head around as much as the pain would allow. He had a gag in his mouth and his arms and legs were tied to the chair he was currently sitting in. He had a crick in his neck and struggled to keep it held up due to the pain in his head. The room was dark and cold. The only light being a single florescent light directly overhead him.

He heard a loud bang and a scraping sound as Alicia entered the room closing the heavy metal door behind her, “I see you’re awake.” Her eyes had something dangerous curling inside of them. She dragged a metal chair in front of Felix, causing another scraping sound. Felix winced. “Do you enjoy what we’ve done with the place? It took a lot of effort to rip up all of the work done in this basement.” Alicia leaned into Felix’s face and he looked past her shoulder, at the ruined wallpaper that brought him back to when he was a child. He remembered running through the slowly being finished basement with his siblings until Mama yelled at them to get out of her house.

Those memories seemed like a faraway dream and the basement he was currently looking at. The basement that used to be warm and full of childhood wonder was now cold and filled his veins with ice. To add insult to injury, it was his best friend that was responsible for ruining his own safe haven.

“Mmph.” Felix supplied unhelpfully around the gag in his mouth.

“Oh, of course we can’t possibly have a conversation with that in your mouth. Where are my manners?” Alicia reached over and pulled the gag from Felix’s mouth letting it hang around his neck. Felix spit in her face. She glared at him as she wiped it off her face. She plastered a wicked grin on her face and leaned back into her chair. “You’re going to regret that.”

“You’re gonna regret this.” Felix glared at her.

“Don’t tempt me to end our fun early.” She taunted him while she grabbed a knife from the table nearby. She dragged the cool metal lightly against his cheek, the touch just light enough that it erupted goosebumps across his skin. He shivered as she added pressure, cutting his cheek. She pulled back like she was burned and winced. “You’re lucky they value you, or rather they value what you offer.” She said, contorting her face back into a stoic emotion.

“Who is they?”

“No one to worry about, yet.” She smiled at Felix and got up as the door opened again. A man and a woman entered. “I take it back, now you should be worried.”

“Alicia.” The woman warned. She had pale, almost translucent skin with blue veins appearing all over her face. Her hair was straight, silvery grey and cut into a bob.

“Sorry, boss.” Alicia bowed towards the woman went towards the table she grabbed the knife from. The man stayed in the shadows lurking, he could just make out the figure. He looked so familiar. Maybe someone from a party that Alicia had always dragged him too. The woman leaned towards Felix and grabbed his chin. Felix hissed at the sudden cold coming from her frozen fingers.

“You have slipped through the cracks long enough. You think we wouldn’t notice all the work you put into ending our organization? Don’t make me laugh. We’ve known since the beginning.” Amusement dripped through her voice. She shoved Felix’s head back, pain pulsed behind his eyes.

“Why didn’t you do anything then?” Felix’s voice was gruff as he spoke. His thoughts turned a million miles a minute. If he planned it right there was a way for him to get out of here.

“ _Felix that is an awful idea. There’s no way it’ll work, and I’m usually all for bad ideas._ ” Osiris advised.

“Oh, but that’s where your wrong Osiris. We’ve done this before, remember when we stole the cloak.” Felix thought.

Felix ignored him and instead focused on mustering up all of his energy for some serious spell work.

“Oh, we’ve done plenty. We’ve been destroying your family single handedly. Who do you think is responsible for your poor Mama being in the hospital?” Her voice took on a teasing lilt when she said ‘Mama’.

“You didn’t have to bring her into this. She knows nothing about this world. None of them do.”

“You really don’t know anything, do you?” The woman laughed like she knew something he didn’t. “You wronged us, we don’t care about what they know.” She stood and nodded to Alicia. Alicia smiled as she picked up another knife. The woman went to stand by the man in the shadows.

“Felix, it’s in your best interest to comply with whatever I say. Where did you put the book?” Alicia dangled the knife point right above Felix’s thigh. Sweat started to collect at the base of his skull and his forehead.

“ _What book? The only important thing we stole was the cloak._ ” Osiris sounded genuinely confused.

“What book?” Felix raised his eyebrow at her. Alicia pushed the knife into his thigh. He threw his head back with a groan at the pain. A bead of sweat dripped past his temple.

“Wrong answer. Where’s the book? You know the one that could help us raise all of hell onto Earth?” What the-

“Language Felix.” Helios chimed in.

“ _But, in all seriousness what is she talking about? That book was nowhere near where we broke into. Besides what business would we want with that kind of book._ ” Felix struggled to concentrate on his surroundings with the pressure in his head increased.

“Oh, that book? Can’t remember seeing it.” He feels pain blossom in his cheek as Alicia punched him.

“We know you took it. Where is it? What did you do with it?” Alicia ripped the knife back out from his thigh and blood gushed out to stain his jeans. He lurched forward and groaned. “Does that jog your memory?” He struggled to catch his breath, the pain quickly becoming a little too much to handle.

“Not really, no.” Felix lifted his head up and smiled at her. This time the knife carved a line across his chest. He clenched his jaw against the pain. In his head, his plain is twirling around, over and over again. He has to get this right. “Now that I think about it I might’ve seen it.” Alicia leaned in closer.

“Where?” She’s so close now, he can feel her breath hit his cheek. He leaned his head back and slammed it into hers. He heard the sickening crunch of bone and blood trickled out of her nose. He scrunched his face up at the increased pain and pressure in his head. Felix almost regretted his actions.

“Son of a…” She trailed off as black smoke wrapped around her throat. She was just able to shove the knife into Felix’s thigh again.

“I believe you’re bothering a friend of mine.” The voice was deep and scratchy, almost like it hasn’t been used in a while. A man stepped into the light behind Felix, black smoke coiling around his arms, seemingly waiting obediently for the man to command it. He was about Felix’s height, with black hair and almost black cat eyes right under his bangs. The black smoke flung Alicia against the wall with a crunch, she slumped over.

“ _She’s definitely not getting back up anytime soon._ ” Felix could feel Osiris’s side eye he sent Alicia’s way.

“I don’t know what you are, but leave before I-” The woman is cut off as she chokes on thick black…

“Is that blood?” Helios sounded disgusted.

“ _That’s just nasty_.” Osiris sounded like he was going to vomit. Her once pearlescent teeth were now stained black.

“It is in your best interest to die silently.” The thick black blood was now coming out of her ears and nose, and ran down her face like she was crying it out.

“ _This is so gross. This is why we can’t have nice things_.” She scratched at her face in a frenzy her nails making angry red lines that eventually started to ooze the same bloody sludge. “ _I honestly couldn’t think of way this could be worse_.” The familiar man that was with the woman rushed forward to try and help his boss but fell to his knees as he coughed up his own heart. She was in a frenzy, scratching her flakey skin off of her neck trying to relieve the pressure in her throat.

She was able to clear her throat long enough to speak, “Please, make it stop.”

“Now, that’s not exactly silent.” The man chuckled and snapped his fingers. The woman screamed as her burst and blood splattered practically everywhere.

“ _I feel bad for whoever has to clean this up_.” The man stepped beside Felix’s chair. He leant down and undid all of the constraints that were keeping him to the chair.

“ _I don’t quite know whether to be even more disgusted or impressed… Maybe both._ ”

“Uh, thanks…” The man didn’t acknowledge Felix, simply sets to work on healing Felix’s thigh and chest. “Not to be rude, but why are you here. I haven’t summoned anything… yet.”

“I came on my own accord, through a portal.” The man straightened up and tilted his head at Felix. “Your tattoos suffered no damage… Is that a bouquet of Rhododendron?” The man asked pointing to a flower tattoo on Felix’s bicep.

“ _Wow, someone actually knew what your tattoo was. They didn’t just say flower. I guess I’m a little more impressed than I am disgusted now_.”

“Osiris shut up. He still brutally murdered two people and then unbrutally possibly murdered a third.”

“ _Unbrutally isn’t a word_.” The pressure in Felix’s head was getting worse again.

“Yeah, it means beware… Well… How can I help you?” The man smiled at Felix’s words. Felix wasn’t exactly looking forward to dealing with a man that just caused two to three deaths in his childhood home, but he definitely didn’t want to cough up his own heart.

 “Perhaps.” The man’s voice was slowly using its rough, just woke up edge the more he used it. Felix takes in the man’s casual appearance, he has a black beanie and navy-blue sweatshirt on with black ripped jeans. Felix thought he kind of looked adorable, despite you know the murder thing. “Are you Felix?”

“Yeah.”

“ _Kid, I’m going to be real with you… This is a bad idea_.”

“A very bad idea.”

“Then yes you can help me and I believe I have something that will be of great interest of you. Let’s discuss this over coffee, my treat.” The man smiled, bringing out a set of dimples, freckles dot his cheeks. The man helped Felix out of his seat.

“Before we go anywhere you’re telling me your name.” Felix fits him with his strongest glare.

“Azazel, but you can call me Zeal.” The man, Azazel, offered help to Felix as they walked back to the portal that Zeal used to come to Felix’s rescue.

“Where is the portal to?”

“You’re apartment.”

“My coffee machine is broken.”

“Before we get coffee we have to get you cleaned up. You are not going anywhere covered in blood.”

“Whatever, mom.” The two walked through the portal, where Mojo barely spares them a glance from where he was perched on the back of the couch.

“ _Good for nothing cat_.”


	2. Perdition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Perdition: a state of eternal punishment and damnation into which a sinful and unpenitent person passes after death.  
> or  
> What happens when a witch and a demon get coffee together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i honestly had no clue what to put as a summary for this... this part was originally longer but i split it up into three chapters so hopefully i didn't mess up the flow of the story

The coffee shop was quiet in their corner, Felix came back to their table in the back corner with two cups, one filled with coffee so light it was basically just beige milk, the other filled with a depressing sludge of straight caffeine. Felix set the beige milk in front of Zeal who took a tentative sip before smiling. “Am I the only one that finds it odd that the demon has a more refined pallet than you?” Osiris’ condescending voice flooded through Felix’s brain. Felix sat down with a huff, more often than not his “guides” brought him nothing, but pain and annoyance. Felix looked on apprehensively at his sludge.

“You okay?” Zeal set his cup down and tilted his head at Felix.

“It’s just the guides in my head. They have a tendency to be a lot for one person to handle… Well, one witch to handle.” Felix drank some of the sludge, relishing in the burning sensation in his throat.

“Guides?” Zeal raised a brow over his cup.

“That’s what they called themselves when they started bickering inside my head.” Felix chugged the rest of his sludge, it tasted more and more like death with each chug. Once he placed the cup down he saw the sludge actually left ominous stains in the coffee cup.

“Interesting. Anyway, I have a plan on how we can save your mom. I think we should-” Zeal began before Felix cut him off.

“How do you know about that?” Felix threw Zeal a fleeting glance before finding the table more interesting.

“Yeah, how and why does he know about that?” Helios chimed in. Pressure was slowly building up behind his eyes.

“You’re really going to question his knowledge when he just saved us?” If Osiris was more than just a voice he definitely would have rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.

“How do I know about your mom?” Zeal asked looking for clarification. Felix nodded and pulled his jean jacket tighter around him. He looked like the definition of uncomfortable. “You have one of the most powerful covens after you…”

“I’m aware, trust me.” Felix put his head in his palms.

“You know for someone that is seeking our help, he isn’t exactly cooperative.” Osiris would be glaring at Zeal if he could glare. Zeal seemed to sense Felix’s distress giving him some time to collect himself. His mouth opened and some words must have come out, but Felix couldn’t hear over the incessant noise his guides caused.  
  
“You’re really trying to pick a fight with the guy that made someone cough up his own heart? You’re acting like a toddler that doesn’t want to share his toy.” Helios sounded scorned. Felix felt offended at being called a toy. Their voices started to fade as Felix focused his energy in paying attention to Zeal. A buzz settled in between his ears.

“Word like that spreads like wildfire through certain circles in the underworld, or hell as most mortals would call it. If you know who to talk to, you can learn almost anything. You caused quite the buzz when you stole the cloak and jewels. The coven of sacreds couldn’t have cared less about the jewels, the cloak however…” Zeal trailed off eyes landing on the jacket Felix was currently wearing. Felix audibly swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. He wished he hadn’t chugged his caffeinated sludge earlier, as it started to slosh around rather painfully in his stomach. “What pissed them off the most was finding out someone was powerful enough to crush the priestess they appointed to that specific temple. Although I’m thoroughly impressed with your skills, you’re lucky their leader wasn’t there. That witch has it out for you, even before your little stunt.”

Felix opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. His throat much too dry to manage anything other than some broken and raspy syllables. He closed his eyes and swallowed down what felt an awful lot like sand in his mouth. “Ho-How does she know abo-out me?” His words were cracked.

“I really don’t care about your feelings Osiris. Zeal is a worthy companion.”

“Doesn’t it strike you as odd that he knows about Felix and the sacreds leader?”

“He’s a demon he doesn’t exactly have a lot going on.”

“We don’t know that Heelie… Besides I don’t like his vibe.”

“You don’t like anyone’s vibe. You persnickety old bitch.”

“Persnickety… Really? At least I’m not crotchety.”

“Crotchety? Well, let me tell you…”

The buzzing in his ears intensified and he missed some of the words that tumbled from Zeal’s mouth. Felix gripped the table so hard his knuckles turned white and willed the voices away. He could almost feel them pressing against his skull, his sorry excuse for coffee felt like it was seconds from coming up.

“…Now back to why I saved you. I have a plan that requires your help. It requires dimension hopping into the coven’s prison and killing the leader.”

“How straight forward.” Osiris sounded like he was shrieking inside of Felix’s skull.

“Yeah.” Was all Felix managed to gasp out before white hot pain overtook him, he lurched forward and placed his hands on the table to keep his head from smacking against the wood. Zeal reached across the table and grabbed his hands. Felix swatted him away not wanting anyone else near him. He felt like the walls were closing in.

“Felix? What hurts?”

“Head.” Felix rasped out as his vision turned spotty. Zeal grabbed at his hands again and this time Felix let him. Felix clenched his eyes shut as he received visions of horns and pitch-black eyes with snakelike red slits. He saw gnashing teeth, all sharp edges. The room suddenly felt too hot to be the air-conditioned shop he was sitting in. He blinked them away to see Zeal looking at him with the eyes from his vision. His nails had grown sharp and pointy, but he made sure not to cut Felix with them. When the buzzing finally stopped and he no longer felt like his head was about to pop, Zeal lessened his grip on Felix’s hands, but never let go. “How did you-?”

“I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve. I healed you back in that basement.”

“Yeah, but that didn’t involve visions and you… shifting.”

“It didn’t involve a lot of things. At the basement, I was healing your body. I just had to keep your mind and magic from splitting. I don’t know what those so called ‘guides’ are, but they aren’t good for you. I’ll add that to the list of things we have to do.” Zeal rubbed soothing circles into the backs of his hands as his eyes returned to their normal state.

“What do you mean heal my mind?” Felix wanted to get swallowed up by the ground.

“You’re guides are someone else’s doing. You have such a strong reaction to them because they aren’t guides, they’re people someone hired to suppress you.”

“Suppress me?”

“All this will be answered shortly. Right now, we have to start heading to the coven’s hide out.”

“Stop being so cryptic.” Felix felt like screaming. Sure, the guy keeps saving his ass, but he could at the very least be a little more forthcoming with information. This made Felix start to wonder if he could actually strangle the demon. Or at least he thought Zeal was a demon, all signs did point to demon what with the horns and all. Zeal stared at him, his eyes showed an inner battle.

“You have no clue how powerful you are. Felix, your magic is strong considering how young you are…” Zeal’s words faded out as the buzzing returned. He gripped at Zeal’s hands and the buzzing faded. The voices barely had a chance to whisper. “Felix are you sure you want to do this? I mean all things considered.” Zeal’s voice was soothing as he spoke.

“Why wouldn’t I want to get my mom back?” Felix looked at Zeal skeptically. Zeal didn’t reply just squeezed Felix’s hands and stood up, only dropping one of Felix’s hands. Zeal chugged the rest of his beige monstrosity and lead Felix out of the coffee shop. He wondered why Zeal hadn’t dropped his hand, but he just chalked it up to wanting to keep him from dying. Not that he particularly minded the hand holding. “So how are we getting to the coven? I imagine it’ll involve a portal.” He didn’t notice Zeal stopped until he was dragged back because of the intertwined hands. He turned to face Zeal.

“We’re going to another realm of reality… It requires more than just your average portal.” Zeal looked over Felix’s shoulder, seemingly searching for something.

“Looking for something specific?” Felix chucked when Zeal jumped a little. He must’ve been lost in his thoughts.

“A place to set it up. If we do it at your apartment we might burn it down. I think the park would be a good place.” Zeal started walking and made a turn into the park and headed towards the hiking trails. To a bystander they must’ve just looked like any other couple that would take a leisurely stroll through the park. Certainly not a witch and demon out to destroy a coven.

“You want to portal into another dimension in the middle of the day in the park?”

“What could go wrong?” Zeal shrugged.

“Famous last words.” Osiris voice teased in a whisper. Felix pinched his eyebrows in annoyance.

“Are they back?” Zeal’s tone was so casual it felt like he was asking about the weather. He just nodded with a sigh. Zeal tightened his grip on his hand. They made it to a secluded part of the trails, where a large rock stood almost tauntingly over them. Almost begging to be made into a portal. “Do you have the chalk?” Felix nodded and got to work drawing the basic symbols needed.

Zeal kept ahold of his hand as he drew making him go slower than he usually would. Once he was done Zeal started adding his runes and chanting. He slipped the chalk back into Felix’s pocket and grabbed a bag of crushed herbs from his own pocket. Zeal unceremoniously dumped the bag of herbs in front of the portal. The runes and symbols begin to shimmer a dark grey and they slowly start to form a doorway of ashy grey for them to walk through. Zeal waved a hand at the portal, “Shall we?”  
Zeal squeezed his hand then let go and walked into the portal first. He quickly followed, already missing the demon's presence.

Felix wasn’t exactly sure what he was expecting out of another dimension, but this wasn’t it. The land was grey and the grass was brown. Everything looked dead. The sky was ashen and there were no clouds and no light either. It was jarring to say the least. “Zeal, what is this place?” Felix voice cracked. The heat in this place was suffocating, he vowed to never complain about humidity again.

“The name before the coven took over many moons ago was something in ancient Greek. I think it roughly translated into Bountiful. When the coven began to take over, their magic bled into the Earth and caused this. Now it knows no name.”

“Sometimes he talks like he’s your age and other times he talks like his age.” Osiris sneered. Felix winced at the intrusion.

Zeal started walking towards the large hills in the distance. Felix followed, numbly looking at the world that once probably looked beautiful. Before long they stood in front of a mansion, one of the few things in this world that was able to retain its beauty. The doors opened before them and showed a young woman with upturned eyes and long pin straight white hair. She wore a black pantsuit and sipped on a glass of what appeared to be red wine. Something about the woman felt familiar to him. Zeal visibly stiffened at the sight of her, getting ready for a fight.

“Azazel, darling, I see you’ve managed to find my old palace.” Her speech was slow and methodical, she drew out every syllable.

“I have.” Zeal glared at her, you could feel the rage that rolled off of him in waves. The air was thick and filled with tension. Zeal started to release his black smoke and it shot towards her and then went right through her. Felix who was getting ready to knock the woman down scrunched his eyebrows up in confusion. Zeal blinked rapidly at the flickering figure in front of them.

“You’re no fun. I was just getting ready to launch into my elaborate speech about trapping you and everything always working out for me, but no. You just couldn’t be a team player, could you? Regardless I have you two right where I want you in my prison. Stick ‘em boys.” Her voice slowly became manic as she faded from vision. She ended her rant with loud cackling that boomed around the walls. Two no faced figures grabbed the duo and dragged them through the halls. Felix tried to throw spells and curses at the guards, but nothing happened to them.

“It won’t work. They aren’t really here, but at the same time they are. They live a painful paradox of an existence.” Zeal almost sounded sorry for the guards. They were taken through a door and down a set of stairs that led to the basement. The room was cut in half with metal grate wall down the middle. Inside of the “cell” was a man with pale skin and long black hair he was propped against the wall shooting sparks against the grate. The guards shoved the pair through the door to the cell and then slammed it shut. Disappearing before the sound could echo.

“I’m glad they brought me some new friends.” The man had a croaky voice and he looked uncared for. “They left me here all alone to die of boredom.”

“We’re not staying for long. As soon as we figure out where she is we’re leaving.” Zeal barely spared the man a glance. Felix was drained, it’s been a long day and a half.

“I know where she is.” The man said this like it wasn’t as important as it was. Zeal turned to give the man a once over.

“How come you haven’t gone after her?” Felix asked.

“I’m old and weak. Even in my prime I was never strong enough to go against someone like her. She threw me in here for trying to save my wife.” The man looked down at his hands, they were covered in thick scars. “I’ll help you kill that serpent if it means my freedom… And a chance to find my children and grandchildren.” The man looked Zeal dead in his eyes.

“Understood. Now how would we go about finding her?” He walked closer to the man.

“The way is unspoken. It has to be shown.” The man stood and grabbed onto their arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2 chapters down and who knows how many left to go


	3. Raving Visions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a vision sequence from hell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for such a short chapter, i just felt like the vision sequence needed to be its own chapter

Felix could see an explosion and hear loud sizzling. There was bright light everywhere. There was heat surrounding him, almost like it was grabbing him. The walls were crumbling and there was a woman standing over a crib. Her hair was short and white. She motioned for a group of three to come over to the crib. The white-haired woman turned away from the crib with a baby in her arms. The child had to have been a new born. Everyone’s face was blurred out. She passed the baby over to a short plump woman in the group of three. The people started talking but it sounded like high pitched wailing. They all went into separate portals.

The vision shifted to a dark alley the baby was handed off to an older woman, despite the blurred face Felix felt like he knew her. She took the baby and went back into a small diner. The vision melted away to show a fortress. The sky was red and there was fog in the air. It was a beautiful scene, something you’d see in a painting. The scene gave off a dark energy, Felix felt deeply unsettled. He could feel himself moving towards the castle. Inside the main hall a woman, the same white-haired woman from before they were thrown in a cell, was sitting on an intricate throne. It was black and reached halfway to the ceiling. There was flecks of gold in the black detailing on the sides. Her face wasn’t blurred and there was a snarl on her face. A group of people was bowing at her feet, they wore pitch black robes with the hoods pulled over their heads.

She was speaking but he couldn’t hear it over the intense buzzing that field his ears. His head felt like it was splitting open. The voices were overlapping and shrieking unintelligible sentences. He collapsed and held his head in his hands, tears leaked down his face and his vision blurred. He felt like he was being choked and every part of him felt like he was being shredded to pieces. He finally closed his eyes and kept thinking of where Zeal and his mother were. He was suddenly filled with new found hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading  
> follow me on twt @_mangoyoongi


	4. Warped

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> felix really should have invested in ancestory.com

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here have a double update :)

He opened his eyes ready to fight for his life, only to see the old man collapsed on the floor. The walls were on fire, and the heat was unbearable. He felt like he was drenched in sweat already. Felix looked over to where Zeal was standing still out of it. “Zeal! Zeal! Come on we have to go.” Felix grabbed Zeal’s shoulders and shook him. “Zeal come on, I know fire is kinda your thing, but I really need you to snap out of it.” Felix grabbed at Zeal’s hands and tried to pull all of his magic together to bring Zeal out of the vision. He found Zeal where he was barely a minute earlier. He was standing staring as the cloaked figures tortured one of their own. An older woman with salt and pepper hair and deep wrinkles. The screams and wails were muddled, almost as if thick glass separated him and Zeal from the coven. Felix felt a hand grab his, he looked over to see Zeal with tears in his eyes.

“Felix, I can’t hold it off much longer.” Zeal sounded drained.

“It’s okay Zeal. It’s okay. Just follow me come on. I’ll get us out of here.” Felix just closed his eyes and imagined the pair fading back into the burning cellar. When he opened again they were on the floor outside of the metal wall that used to hold them captive. They scrambled to stand and Zeal leaned heavily against Felix. Felix wrapped an arm around his shoulders, sheltering his weight. “Alright big guy, let’s just leave the way we came. I’ve only ever done this once before and it drained me of energy for a week, so let’s not do that again.” Felix squeezed his eyes shut and raised his free hand, his palm facing the wall. He thought of home, he chanted spell after spell spilling all of his energy into creating a passage that would destroy any trace of them ever being here and ensure no one could follow him. The buzzing picked up in his ears trying to ruin his concentration, he just kept thinking of home.

He used every last bit of magic in him and blasted pure magic against the wall. The ground shook and they were thrown through the portal. They landed on a hard surface. A loud and steady beep flooded Felix’s senses. His eyes slammed open and saw he was on the floor of a hospital room. He scrambled up and saw his mother lying on the hospital bed, dead. Her skin looked so pale and dry. Her heart monitor was the beeping sound. Felix grabbed at her hands surprised that they weren't quite cold yet.  A lone nurse, came in and unplugged her monitor ending the sound. The nurse’s eyes looked manic and her limbs moved stiffly, she was possessed. The room was suddenly eerily silent. A loud ringing sounded in Felix’s ears. Felix was numbed. He couldn’t even feel the tears streaming down his cheeks. He couldn’t hear his loud sobs, or feel his shoulders shake.

“Felix.” Zeal placed a hand on his shoulder, he was leaning against the bed. “Felix, we have to leave.”

“No.” Felix couldn’t leave his mother.

“Felix.” Zeal sounded desperate.

“Zeal, I already failed her. I shouldn’t have stolen from them. I-I just… Just wanted to pay off her bills… Maybe help some people... Instead I caused so much pain and agony. I did this Felix… I-I-I caused this.” He became inconsolable. Zeal pulled Felix against him. He tightened his grip as the door opened.

“What a sight to be greeted with. Oh, Felix dear… Why are you crying over this imposter playing house?” The same woman from the prison and the vision was now in his mother’s hospital room.

“What are you talking about?” Felix’s voice shook as he turned in Zeal’s arm to see the woman.

“That wasn’t your real mother, dear.” The woman glared at his mother.

“Yes, she was. Maybe not biologically, but she was better than whoever gave birth to me.” Felix felt enraged at the woman standing in front of him and Zeal.

“Felix, dear. I’m your real mother. How else would you be so powerful? Now come to mother dearest.” Her face twisted into a smile, but it never reached her eyes. Before Felix could even respond he felt as if he was being sucked up in a vacuum. His vision went black and he landed with a hard thud. He felt himself slip into unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> how many guessed that the main villain was going to be felix's own mother?  
> thanks for reading  
> follow me on twt @_mangoyoongi

**Author's Note:**

> id like to thank @sopeworlq on twitter for pushing me to post this or else it wouldve never happened  
> uh follow me on twitter @_mangoyoongi :)


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